Volleyball Receives Seventh-Straight AVCA Team Academic Award

Team Posts Combined GPA Of 3.58 In 2016-17

DENTON - The North Texas volleyball program received an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the seventh consecutive year, announced Monday afternoon.

The AVCA presents the award to collegiate and high school programs that maintain at least a 3.30 team grade-point average on a scale of 4.0 or 4.1 on a scale of 5.0. The 2016-17 squad combined for a 3.58 grade-point average, the highest among all sports at North Texas.

"I'm proud of our players for making academics an important and integral part of our program," head coach Andrew Palileo said. "We have earned this award the past seven years, so the bar has been set for each and every class coming through our program."

Additionally, the Mean Green made the AVCA Team Academic Honor Roll, which indicates a top-25 grade-point average among Division I programs. The AVCA introduced the honor roll to mark the 25th anniversary of the award.

Each of the five Mean Green teams under coach Palileo have been named to the AVCA list, and four athletes on the 2016-17 roster maintained a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

The Mean Green were one of six Conference USA schools on the list as Marshall, Rice, UAB, UTEP and Western Kentucky also earned the AVCA Team Academic Award.

In the Academic Progress Rates (APR) that were released in May, volleyball collected a score of 981. The squad tallied a score of 995 in the multiyear year report, which was good for second amongst the 16 teams at North Texas.

In total, 822 teams made this year's list, breaking the previous record of 764 set last year.